El Sisi: We have a plan to deal with the FX crunch over the coming six months. Coming in the wake of yesterday’s interviews on foreign policy, state-owned dailies Al Ahram, Al Akhbar, and Al Gomhouria are leading their front pages this morning with an interview that focuses on the economy and the reform program. Speaking of the IMF, El Sisi repeated the government line that the reform program was not imposed and is fundamentally Egyptian. El Sisi referred to the decision to lift power subsidies as an example of the government being willing to take “tough decisions” and stick to the reform agenda.

Expanded welfare spending: The government will continue to protect society’s neediest from the economic hardships inherent in the reform program, El Sisi said. That’s why his administration has raised state pensions and will continue to expand welfare benefits to include an additional 2.5 mn families at a cost of EGP 7 bn per year. The government hopes to grow the beneficiaries of the Takaful and Karama social programs to 1 mn families by December and 1.5 mn by the end of next year. The low-income housing program will also expand, adding 1 mn homes over the coming two years at a cost of EGP 170 bn. The government will also organize a nationwide hepatitis C diagnosis awareness campaign, said El Sisi.

The president then defended national projects, which he says helped reduce unemployment to 12.5% from 13.8% and brought GDP growth to 4.5%. El Sisi proclaimed that the costs of national projects underway came at over EGP 1 tn. Other projects announced include a plan to develop 100k greenhouses. El Sisi also defended the broad role the armed forces have played in these national projects. “The armed forces’ contribution to GDP amounts to 2.5%, which is less than our neighbors,” said El Sisi.